NCAA hockey: Yale 3, Gophers 2 (OT)

Minnesota's Kyle Rau, left, skates against Yale's Kenny Agostino in the first period of the NCAA Division I Hockey college regional tournament game in Grand Rapids, Mich., Friday. (AP Photo/The Grand Rapids Press, Cory Morse)

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- Another season has come and gone for the University of Minnesota men's hockey team without adding a national championship trophy to its collection.

Just nine seconds into overtime, Yale stunned Minnesota 3-2 with a goal by junior center Jesse Root that knocked the Gophers out of the NCAA tournament in the opening round Friday, March 29.

"It's a tough loss. Obviously, it stings," Gophers captain Zach Budish said. "It just sucks to go out this way."

The upset loss at Van Andel Arena ensured Minnesota will go more than a decade without a national title. The Gophers won their last of five NCAA championships in 2003.

The loss was the Gophers' most disappointing in the NCAA tournament since the 2006 team was shocked by Holy Cross in the first round. The Gophers came into this NCAA postseason as the top seed in the West Regional and the second-seeded team in the nation. Yale was the 15th seed in the 16-team tournament.

Although Yale (19-12-3) is a better team than the Holy Cross bunch that beat the Gophers 4-3 in overtime in '06, the Gophers were a team expected to compete for a national title. They were first or second in national rankings most of the season.

The Gophers (26-9-5) finished the season with back-to-back losses. They lost 2-0 to Colorado College in the semifinals of the WCHA Final Five last week.

"Offensively, the last couple of games, we didn't do a whole lot," Gophers coach Don Lucia said. "We were shut out the last game and scored the two goals (against Yale).

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I felt good going into overtime; I really did. I thought we were in good shape heading into overtime. It ended so quick. I guess that's why they call it sudden death."

The Gophers won the faceoff in overtime, but Kenny Agostino snatched away the puck behind the Gophers' net. He sent it to Root, who scored his 10th goal of the season when he fired the puck past Gophers goaltender Adam Wilcox.

Agostino also scored Yale's first goal, in the second period. He has had an interesting few days. On Thursday, March 28, he learned he was part of the trade that sent Jarome Iginla from Calgary to the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Penguins traded Agostino's NHL rights to Calgary. Then on Friday, he helped lift his team into the second round of the NCAA tournament.

"He was a good player," Lucia said. "He was very noticeable in the game for them."

After Agostino's goal, Yale went ahead 2-0 later in the second period on Gus Young's goal. The Gophers rallied from that two-goal deficit behind Nate Schmidt's power-play goal and Zach Budish's score. Erik Haula assisted on both Minnesota goals.

"We had a lot of attempted shots. They blocked a lot of shots, and we missed the net a lot," Lucia said. "When you're not getting pucks to the net, you're not getting an opportunity at second shots. You don't get an opportunity to create some momentum from that. I think we attempted 81 shots, and only (28) were on net."

Yale goaltender Jeff Malcolm had 26 saves.

"I thought we got better as the game went on," Lucia said. "We tied it. Things just ended so quickly in that overtime period. You don't have a chance to do anything. The effort was there. We attempted 80-some shots. We just missed too many."